An awfully long day
by FearlessRaider
Summary: Garrus is having an awful day. Seeing Shepard laughing can make a big difference. Though in his mind, he always feel like he can screw that one too.


"It's not really even that funny, Garrus. Believe me on this one. It won't translate well."

"_Shepard_, " he was pleading, but it had been an awfully long day, "humour me."

"Don't blame me when you don't get what's funny about this, _again_." She muttered when flipping back pages on the dapatad. With a heavy sigh she started to read out loud.

"So this girl who lived on earth many years ago kept this diary. Where she would tell these little stories about her life. What was happening and especially what wasn't. Pretty much daily stuff, but mostly just converstations from her life."

Garrus grunted in response while slowly starting to take off his armour. Today hasn't been easy on any level, but finding her sitting in their shared bed with laugher catching her eyes too, was indeed a pleasing view. No matter how crushing all the numbers were which he was getting back from situaition over Palaven. Or how long did Victus drag on their meeting, which ended up being totally pointless – at least he thought so. But it was nice to come back here, to find her laughing.

It was bad every where, but not in here. In her cabin, where she was laughing – more like giggling – uncontrollably to something she was reading again on those datapads. The ugly war ahead of them didn't seem such a big deal after all.

The way those datapads fascinated her was not lost to him, but he still quite didn't crasp the contex of those little stories she told. They weren't really even stories, just memories of someone long forgotten. Someone who didn't knew how shitty the future would be, even if you didn't count all the misunderstanding – even between their species. Today had indeed been an awful and long day.

No intel or mission reports in bed. Those were his first rules that he said out loud when she asked him to move in with her to the _"big loft"_ as she jokingly called the place. Their place, her place. Secret hea-

"You aren't even listening!"

Garrus slowly returned to real world when he heard her accusing words to realize she was right, of course she was. He found himself standing there in front of her, _their_, locker while balancing on one foot while taking the other one's boot off. His mind went blank about what she had told him, because all he had been thinking had been around how awfull things were.

"Sorry, Shepard. I just have lot of on my mind," he answered some what truthfully while finally stripping the last piece of clothing of his. Shower was next on his list, quick shower and maybe a drink. That wouldn't be so bad, wouldn't it?

While he was walking the steps back up going for the shower, he could feel her gaze on his back. The worried kind, which made him a little pissed off to himself. She was having such a good time before he managed to drag his ass to this cabin. Indulging himself to what ever she was doing, because she looked so damn relaxed and the laugh had finally caught to eyes too. To those beautiful eyes which laughed way too little these days. He didn't even know it was something he'd missed, before he noticed they weren't laughing so much anymore.

All that because all the people trusted her with their bullshit, even his own race couldn't make peace with the krogan without her, he knew that much. No matter how good friends he was with Wrex, it was ultimately about how good she was with words and getting people to trust her in all those delicate things. So he wasn't going to add to her burden about some silly stuff, because it was she if anyone needed break from the war that had just begun.

When he finally emerged from the shower, fresh and clean and feeling a little better, he found Shepard still reading in the bed. It wasn't what caught his attention, but the sweet smell of turian brandy neatly in a glass next to her private terminal. Double-shot, freshly poured on the rocks. Just the way he likes it. When did she learn that?

When he finally sats on her,_ their,_ bed with drink in his hand Shepard quietly humms to his heavy sighs while still having his back to her. Laugher that filled the room earlier has slowly died, but he could still feel her being pretty much content and happy. Not as relaxed when he walked in to see her giggling over a datapad, but not like all the pressure were bringing her down breath by breath. Which was good, but not perfect.

The bed shifts under him when she feels her moving. Little clap on the side table tells him that she's tossed away the datapad. Quiet humm follows that clab when he first feels her fingers, all those fingers, slowly moving up his back towards his neck and shoulders. Taking a ship from his drink he tries to distract himself from all the wonders her fingers are doing to his shoulders and neck. All muscle there that's hard and bulky with all the tension he's been carrying around for days.

"You're carrying a little tension here," he hears Shepard murmur close to his ear when he feels that tight pressure which her fingers are making to that muscle over there that had been working his nerves for few days. He grunts slightly when it starts to ease off and Shepard's fingers try to find more bulks and knots to break. They sat there in silence, he every once in a while taking sip from his drink and Shepard massaging his shoulders and neck to get rid off the tension that had been building there.

There are so many things he wants to say, but then he has never been good with words. It was no problem to him to make snarky comment about something, since bullshitting was something he was good at. Mostly just messing up with people minds, especially humans were always up to little teasing, but when it came to the big words – he was lost. In a way he found himself lucky for not needing to speak so much around Shepard, everything was easy and going wonderfully. But he knew that even though he knew how much that silly human meant to him, she might not. After all, all _this_ had started with one night of blowing off steam before big and probably deadly suicide mission – which ended up being nothing like a suicide mission. Bringing everyone back alive takes the sting off any mission labeled as suicide mission.

Though in the first few minutes it was clear that it wasn't just about releasing some tension. It came particly clear when she had spend 6 months in Earth while he had been on Palaven trying to make people listen about the coming war. How much it had worked were lost to him, but he knew he had done something. Which was all she had asked him to do when it was clear she needed to go back to Earth to hear the music.

While his mind had been racing trough thoughts, Shepard had finally finished off with her gentle massage to her lovers shoulders. She made a big finale with kissing gently his neck from the scarred side and ending up on his cheeck. That was rewarded with quited humms from Garrus end. Gracefully she shifted herself from behind him to sit next to him while taking the empty glass away from his hand. He was still there, somewhere his mind.

When he finally came back to this world the second time, he saw himself facing that beautiful fierce human. The glass in his hand was replaced my her hand that was gently squeezing his talons.

"Bad day, huh?" Her question was more like statement. All he could do was touch her forehead with his.

"You could say that", he slowly breathed in her scent while closing his eyes, "so how was the punch line in that story?"

"Horrible, as always, but then it has it's perks", Shepard answered while leaning closer to him.

"Hmmm.. perks you say?"

"Yeah, like always using those old jokes these days", he could hear her smile, "those things drive Joker crazy. Because aren't really funny."

"Like the one about.. what it was.. ah, about the dog?"

That made her chuckle so when he opened his eyes he saw it. Laughter in her eyes, once again. There were perks in awulf days too. Even those days ended.


End file.
